Summer Traveling

The past two weeks have been full to the brim with changing places and traveling and seeing friends from last semester and a friend from when I was in Europe two years ago.

I'll begin this photo blog at two weeks ago: 

The wedding in Budapest

It was a joy and a cultural treat for the three of us (from left: Jemma, me, Esther, and the bride and groom in the photo in the back) to be able to go to the wedding of our good friend and roommate from last semester.

Slovakia

Early the next day I took a bus from Budapest to Bratislava (about three hours) to visit the city. It was the first time I've traveled alone (on purpose anyway) just to sightsee and have a little bit of a vacation. I had to be my own map-lady which was not the simplest thing for me.... here's a lovely fountain in a lovely park that isn't quite in the direction I was intending to go.

Eventually I did find the right direction and made my way to the city center. The sculpture behind me is of St. George and the Dragon. It stands in the courtyard of the Primatial Palace where the Treaty of Bratislava was signed between France and Austria in 1805 after the Battle of Austerlitz.

Bratislava has an interesting sense of humor. I'm not sure if this single-pylon bridge was designed to look like a UFO over the city or not...

...but the view from the top is incredible - both of the castle and the surrounding area.

The city has statues scattered around the Old Town area of notable people from times past, which add to the humor it seems to have as a small city that had a few moments of importance in European history. Roz and I had to pose with a few of them.

Roz and I also enjoyed a visit to the Natural History Museum, which I mostly went into for an exhibition that turned out to be in a different museum and had in fact been over for a month... sometimes knowing only English leads to confusion while traveling - especially in somewhat off the beaten path cities like Bratislava. But I did enjoy this museum and the guide who wanted to make sure I understood regardless of the language barrier. 

Germany

From Slovakia I took a bus to Berlin where I would be meeting up with Kristin, my German friend who has been telling me to come see her since we met two years ago. I had a day in the city by myself and went walking through a street art exhibit and then on a walking tour.

The tour covered old history and recent history... I took lots of photos, but a couple I want to share here are of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews in WWII. 

It looks almost non-descript. Stone blocks, all the same length and depth but different heights over a city block. The guide described it as perhaps a bar graph of antisemitism showing the increase and decrease over the first half of the century. He said others saw the blocks differently. I don't know why the second photo evokes strong feelings in me, but walking through the memorial is a vastly different experience than walking around it. Perhaps you will get a similar feeling - or maybe you had to be there. 

 

The tour also focused on the Berlin Wall - division of East and West for forty-some years. This is at the East Gallery.

And this is at Checkpoint Charlie - probably one of the most photographed by Americans spots in Berlin. 

Berlin also has beautiful buildings - a few left after the Allies bombed the city or reconstructed from what was left. This one is on an island in the city that is full of museums... some that I'd like to see if I have the pleasure of visiting Berlin again. 

And this is us, taking a break along the river Spree... me with Kristin and her friend (now our friend) Uli, who graciously hosted us for the night.

...and I wasted a bit of their time having them help me find a very special but not terribly interesting street... 

After Berlin, Kristin and I spent a little time in her hometown of Halle, Leipzig, Dresden and then we crossed the border into the Czech Republic to do some hiking.

Dresden is an incredibly beautiful city.

You might say we were on top of the world... haha...ok, bad joke... but look closely. 

Going to the Bohemian Switzerland National Park in the Czech Republic was an unexpected highlight of the trip.

Vajta, Hungary

....and now I am back at the castle in Vajta, serving at the conferences that will be taking place for the next three and a half weeks of summer before school starts again.

Prayer requests - 
Please pray that I will be able to rest and recover my energy before school starts. I came back much more relaxed and mentally ready to start a new set of challenges, but I also pushed myself too hard physically while traveling and came back pretty much exhausted in that regard. I'm trying to rest every time my body says it's time to, but so far that's almost ALL the time.

PS - If anyone sent me anything here at the castle over the summer, the office sent it back because I wasn't here to pick it up - I had a little misunderstanding about what they would be doing. Please let me know if you received something back.